Canadian Airport Thread II

[RomanR27]

Originally Posted by nname

^ You can check what I posted in the YVR thread. About half of the YVR transborder and Mexico routes have capacity cut. Most of the routes you listed (SFO, LAX, LAS, DEN) were fully mainline last year. IAD was suspended for the winter.

Similar route/capacity cut and frequency consolation happens in YUL/YYZ. For instance, YUL-LAX/SFO were both 2x daily 223/7M8. YUL-DTW/PHL suspended, as well as YYZ-CMH/IND/CLE/CVG/BDL. And then there's even more suspension out of YEG and YOW... There is probably more but I was mainly focusing on YVR only.

And not sure if there's still a point to list Mainline, Rouge, and Express separately now, since AC now seems to constantly swapping them and use them interchangeably, especially for Rouge. Even if a flight is listed as mainline, it may still become Rouge on the last minute. At least I already gave up tracking the Mainline/Rouge swaps out of YUL/YYZ...

What suspensions have there been out of YOW? As far as I can see, everything AC is running this summer remains for the Winter.

[casper]

Originally Posted by theman23

Yeah, it’s a bit absurd to expect a group of people to give up their pensions so you don’t miss out on your long weekend plans.

Your assuming I have a say in what the company offers the union. I don't. WestJet management does not ask its customers for input on this sort of thing.

Over the past 6 weeks, I have had separate trips to Toronto, Dallas, and Saskatoon. Something has gone wrong with everyone of them. The first it was extreme winds causing flights to cancel and staff to be out of position so they could not crew one of the flights I was one. The second it was storms in Toronto causing them to keep the ground crew under cover. The last was the WestJet strike. The impact on the first was a 6 hour delay getting in at 1 am. The second, was missing the last flight from Vancouver to Victoria and having to find a hotel overnight (that the airline will not pay for) and the third was the list impactful adding two hours.

I am far more sympathetic to the storms causing travel plans to be messed up that the airline having a disagreement with it is union. WestJet needs to get its act together, and I am staying away until they do.

The reality is post-COVID all the airlines have moved to a setup where many of their airport staff are unable to handle the simplest rebooking without calling some internal helpdesk. Delta and Alaska are better, Air Canada is close. United and WestJet are terrible at this.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by RomanR27

What suspensions have there been out of YOW? As far as I can see, everything AC is running this summer remains for the Winter.

The only cuts I see are:
-YOW-YYZ is reduced to 11x from 12x with this schedule update. That's -1x vs winter 2023-24, but +1x vs summer 2024.
-The weekly Rouge YOW-YQB that was leaving after midnight is gone. I think both stations getting the new Tulum flight eliminated the need for what was essentially a repo flight.
-YOW-YUL is showing as 6x. Last winter might have been 7x (can't remember for sure though)
-YOW-EWR, which was cut almost in line with the CRJ retirement, is now exclusively UA metal this winter or -1x on the route.

YOW's still coming out ahead as on the flip side:
-YYC back year-round, so +1x
-YWG back year-round, so +1x
-YHZ back to 3x this winter, so +2x
-YQB operates daily, so flights all weekend this winter
-YVR getting the 789 all winter instead of only part of last winter
-All the extra Rouge sun flying.

[Dominion301]

So AC have confirmed they're getting 8 additional 7M8s. These are almost certainly the Lynx birds (including those that were pending delivery). Going to be in a Y189 config to start.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...869135534.html

[nname]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

The only cuts I see are:
-YOW-YYZ is reduced to 11x from 12x with this schedule update. That's -1x vs winter 2023-24, but +1x vs summer 2024.
-The weekly Rouge YOW-YQB that was leaving after midnight is gone. I think both stations getting the new Tulum flight eliminated the need for what was essentially a repo flight.
-YOW-YUL is showing as 6x. Last winter might have been 7x (can't remember for sure though)
-YOW-EWR, which was cut almost in line with the CRJ retirement, is now exclusively UA metal this winter or -1x on the route.

YOW's still coming out ahead as on the flip side:
-YYC back year-round, so +1x
-YWG back year-round, so +1x
-YHZ back to 3x this winter, so +2x
-YQB operates daily, so flights all weekend this winter
-YVR getting the 789 all winter instead of only part of last winter
-All the extra Rouge sun flying.

Yes EWR is the one I see when I compared to last winter. But I checked again, I guess the route was already cut this summer...

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by nname

Yes EWR is the one I see when I compared to last winter. But I checked again, I guess the route was already cut this summer...

It was indeed back in early May.

Regarding the Rouge repo flight, it’s now a weekly YOW-YUL at sensible times to rotate the aircraft. That makes more sense than a middle-of-the-night YQB rotation.

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by Dominion301

So AC have confirmed they're getting 8 additional 7M8s. These are almost certainly the Lynx birds (including those that were pending delivery). Going to be in a Y189 config to start.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-release...869135534.html

Even if the press release says these planes will get interior mods eventually, I wonder if AC is contemplating leaving these 737s in a 189 seat config and sending them to Rouge instead. Perfect plane for a YVR Rouge base. Just because they aren't saying it doesn't mean they aren't thinking it. We all know how fast plans can change. Either way, they need to wait for the AC pilots to get a new contract before finalizing any plans on a potential Rouge swap from A320 series to 737-8s.

Considering these planes won't be online until next year, the timing could be perfect for such a move.

[nname]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

YUL May 2024 stats:

Domestic: 590,024 -1.3%
Transborder: 452,904 +11.8%
International: 837,060 +13.3%

May Total: 1,879,988 +8.0%
2024 YTD: 8,588,860 +9.5%

https://www.admtl.com/sites/default/...Web_EN_Mai.pdf

Growth increased compared to April, which is a nice surpise. All signs were pointing to a continued decrease in growth rates.

Guess all major Canadian airports post similar stats for May

YVR May 2024

Domestic: 1,119,975 -1.2%
Transborder: 587,691 +23.4%
Asia Pacific: 309,346 +13.1%
Europe: 174,334 +22.9%
Misc Intl: 61,168 -4.6%

May Total: 2,252,514 +7.8%
2024 YTD: 10,282,887 +8.3%

https://www.yvr.ca/-/media/yvr/docum...fic-update.pdf

May total was a record for YVR, as well as the transborder and Europe sector (despite overall capacity loss for Europe compared to pre-pandemic). For domestic and misc intl, it was the 2nd highest (2023 was the highest). APAC was 4th (2017-19 were higher).

[Zmonkey]

Originally Posted by nname

Guess all major Canadian airports post similar stats for May

YVR May 2024

Domestic: 1,119,975 -1.2%
Transborder: 587,691 +23.4%
Asia Pacific: 309,346 +13.1%
Europe: 174,334 +22.9%
Misc Intl: 61,168 -4.6%

May Total: 2,252,514 +7.8%
2024 YTD: 10,282,887 +8.3%

https://www.yvr.ca/-/media/yvr/docum...fic-update.pdf

May total was a record for YVR, as well as the transborder and Europe sector (despite overall capacity loss for Europe compared to pre-pandemic). For domestic and misc intl, it was the 2nd highest (2023 was the highest). APAC was 4th (2017-19 were higher).

Has there been any reasons for why Domestic has been flat across the country this year? Business travel still down? Covid domestic bump over? Fares increasing? Loss of low cost competition without Lynx and Flair raising fares?

[YOWetal]

Originally Posted by Zmonkey

Has there been any reasons for why Domestic has been flat across the country this year? Business travel still down? Covid domestic bump over? Fares increasing? Loss of low cost competition without Lynx and Flair raising fares?

Some of it must be more direct flights. You can fly from Calgary to Seoul or Palm Springs rather than change in Vancouver.

[Dominion301]

Originally Posted by Zmonkey

Has there been any reasons for why Domestic has been flat across the country this year? Business travel still down? Covid domestic bump over? Fares increasing? Loss of low cost competition without Lynx and Flair raising fares?

A lot of it is the loss of Lynx and the loss of Flair domestic flying. Airports with lots of PD flying additions (i.e., YOW, YHZ & YYZ) are fairing better. Case in point, here's YHZ for May:

Sector / May '19 / May '23 / May '24 / % Change vs 2023 / vs 2019
Dom 324,658 / 265,212 / 293,247 / +10.6% / (9.7%)
T.B. 25,211 / 10,750 / 12,171 / +13.2% / (51.7%)
Int'l 30,016 / 21,632 / 39,922 / +84.6% / +33.0%
TTL 379,885 / 297,594 / 345,340 / +16.0% / (9.1%)

YHZ's big May domestic jump bucks the trend. No surprise as PD's YHZ-YYT/YUL/YOW routes all got huge capacity increases switching to E95s from DH4s.

YHZ Year-to-Date
Sector / YTD 2019 / YTD 2023 / YTD 2024 / % Change vs 2023 / vs 2019
Dom 1,238,721 / 1,037,754 / 1,065,475 / +2.7% / (14.0%)
T.B. 149,962 / 84,063 / 96,017 / +14.2% / (36.0%)
Int'l 169,369 / 172,930 / 221,385 / +28.0% / +30.7%
TTL 1,558,052 / 1,294,747 / 1,382,877 / +6.8% / (11.2%)

[whatnext]

An acquaintance who works at WS Encore said that Porter was offering very generous salaries for cabin crew. I thought he said something like $80/hr which was much higher than Encore or AC Express. How can they afford to do that?

[Ozabald]

Originally Posted by whatnext

An acquaintance who works at WS Encore said that Porter was offering very generous salaries for cabin crew. I thought he said something like $80/hr which was much higher than Encore or AC Express. How can they afford to do that?

From a recruitment perspective, more cost-effective to offer a higher salary to qualified and trained FAs vs. recruiting less qualified/experienced FAs at a lower salary. The onboarding and training time for be much shorter.

[J81]

Originally Posted by whatnext

An acquaintance who works at WS Encore said that Porter was offering very generous salaries for cabin crew. I thought he said something like $80/hr which was much higher than Encore or AC Express. How can they afford to do that?

2 months ago the starting FA salary was 36$/hr

[J81]

Originally Posted by whatnext

An acquaintance who works at WS Encore said that Porter was offering very generous salaries for cabin crew. I thought he said something like $80/hr which was much higher than Encore or AC Express. How can they afford to do that?

2 months ago the starting salary for an FA at Porter was 36$/hr

[thenoflyzone]

Originally Posted by whatnext

An acquaintance who works at WS Encore said that Porter was offering very generous salaries for cabin crew. I thought he said something like $80/hr which was much higher than Encore or AC Express. How can they afford to do that?

They can’t. But they need to offer something to snatch experienced F/A’s. This being said, 80$ sounds a bit much, so I’ll take that rumor with a grain of salt.

Encore cabin crew are unionized. PD cabin crew aren’t yet I believe, or if they are, haven’t yet negotiated their first collective agreement. So there is that as well. There is more to a job than just salary and a union is there to make sure that other stuff is taken care of as well.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by thenoflyzone

They can’t. But they need to offer something to snatch experienced F/A’s. This being said, 80$ sounds a bit much, so I’ll take that rumor with a grain of salt.

Encore cabin crew are unionized. PD cabin crew aren’t yet I believe, or if they are, haven’t yet negotiated their first collective agreement. So there is that as well. There is more to a job than just salary and a union is there to make sure that other stuff is taken care of as well.

Interesting.

Meanwhile it looks like the market thinks this travel boom cycle has peaked:

Short sellers target Air Canada as costs rise, travel demand weakens
Stephanie Hughes and Peyton Forte, Bloomberg News

Short sellers are targeting Canada’s biggest publicly traded airline as investors expect rising operational costs and weaker post-pandemic consumer demand to weigh on growth.

Air Canada’s short interest as a percentage of float — a metric that measures how many traders sold shares compared to the total amount of stock available to trade — stood at nearly 19 per cent in early July, according to financial data firm S3 Partners LLC…..

…. Investors are forecasting a challenging travel season for airlines, with a lack of available aircraft and materials to make them as well as elevated inflation threatening to keep passengers away. While higher interest rates have brought inflation closer to its two per cent target, headline inflation quickened to 2.9 per cent in May, up from the 2.7 per cent a month earlier…..

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/short-se...kens-1.2092616

[Dominion301]

Speaking of AC, the website right now isn't working.

[Alexcaban]

Apparently French Bee is adding ORY-YUL starting May 2025

[Calfan12]

Originally Posted by Alexcaban

Apparently French Bee is adding ORY-YUL starting May 2025

That’s great. I think this new route will work out for Montreal YUL, as they have a large French /European population in Quebec,Canada✅.
____________________________________________________________

AIR CANADA ADDS A330 MONTREAL – LAS VEGAS SERVICE IN NW24

Air Canada during Northern winter 2024/25 season is adjusting capacity on Montreal – Las Vegas service, previously scheduled with 2 daily rouge A319 service. From 27OCT24 to 30APR25, this route will be served once a day, with mainline 285-seater A330-300 (J30Y255) aircraft.

AC1275 YUL1905 – 2153LAS 333 D
AC1274 LAS2325 – 0710+1YUL 333 D

https://www.aeroroutes.com/eng/240705-acnw24yullas